Mining claims at root of Nevada town Pioche's violence

4:17 PM,
Nov. 25, 2012

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While it is not true that 72 people were killed in Pioche before anyone died of natural causes, the town did earn its violent reputation as one of the roughest and rowdiest in the west.

For instance, a year after the camp became a town in 1870, five people were killed. A year later, 11 murders were reported. Within five years, some 40 people had died violently; only two killers were ever punished.

But through it all, Pioche, which sits in a canyon off U.S. 93 between Ely and Las Vegas, is one town that boasts that there were never any lynchings here. ...